On 6th January, on his YouTube channel, Jay Cutler shared his first leg workout session of 2026, utilizing pyramidal sets.

He emphasized that he is “not one to set like, resolutions” and focuses on his daily activities, promotions, and his workout.

Before starting his workout, he revealed that he hurt his quad a few weeks ago while doing squats. However, he said, “No pain whatsoever, or reinjury."

Jay Cutler also spoke about his current training approach. He said, “Nothing crazy. My whole training aspect is now for longevity, not necessarily trying to break any weight records. Although some days I train heavier and harder than other days”.

Now, see which exercises the 4-time Mr. Olympia performed that day.

Seated hamstring curl

At first, he warmed up his hamstrings with some pyramid sets, changing the weights between sets. He said, “Pyramided up a couple of plates. I think I did four or five or six sets there, a couple warm-up sets”.

Leg curl

This was the next movement, he showed. According to Jay Cutler, “Moved over to the one-legged curl. This is a little different. A lot of these are not selectorized equipment, so they don’t have a pulley or a chain or anything like that. I added some plates on there, one leg at a time, really isolated the bicep for the leg, which is basically the hamstring”.

Stiffed-leg deadlift

During this workout, Jay Cutler does not prefer to keep legs completely straight. He makes the movement look like a Romanian deadlift by bending his knees a little.

He said, “It’s actually more of almost like a I don’t even know what to call it, a stretch of the hamstrings and glutes because I don’t do stiff legs…. It’s basically a Romanian, whatever, a cross in between…. Just feels better for me. I can really bring the hamstrings in”.

Lying hamstring curl

For this workout, he was seen to utilize a hamstring curl machine and said, “This is a little different from a nice angle on this machine, did three sets there, pretty much worked with the same weight”.

Lunges

During lunges, Jay Cutler said, “I used to do it on the turf area. We went into what used to be the leg room, which is now the powerlifting room. I did walking lunges there with a barbell, 75 pounds on my back. Normally, I do at least 10 reps per leg”.

Leg extension

For this movement that targets quads, Jay Cutler did “five or six sets”. He also “pyramided the weight up to get blood into the quads from the hamstrings”.

To get more engaged quads, he started to do leg press.

Inverted leg press

He admitted that the inverted leg press is one of his favorites. Jay Cutler said, “I work this a lot of in '09 when I was trying to get my discrepancy in my legs because that inverted with the blood coming down flushing back and forth, it really worked well for me”.

Squat machine

For quads contraction, Jay Cutler used a squat machine and did 3 sets, not heavy, and “Just two plates a side. Just getting everything contracted”.

Adductor machine

Lastly, while doing multiple reps on this machine, he said, "I incorporated that into my workout. Did three sets there and wrapped it up. Nothing crazy. This is my first leg workout of 2026.”

So, how did you start your new year?

Written by

Supradeep Dutta